Board of Control addresses postseason formats, future sites and alignments

During the course of its February meeting at the KHSAA offices on Wednesday, the Board of Control deliberated on the postseason formats, future sites and alignments for several sports. The most impactful decision made Wednesday concerned the future of the state softball tournament, with the Board voting for the event to transition to a single-elimination format in 2019. The move to single elimination will bring the softball championship more in-line with the baseball state tournament while also helping to alleviate concerns with the potential overuse of pitchers under the current double-elimination format.

“We have been discussing the future and the format of the state softball tournament for the last several years, and I applaud the Board for the steps it took today in approving our recommendations,” said KHSAA Commissioner Julian Tackett. “Examining the state softball and baseball tournaments, you would be hard pressed to say the events were equitable for the participants and fans in their current formats. Moving to a single-elimination format where each team plays one game per day in those early rounds will open some new possibilities for the scheduling of this championship.”

The approval for the future format of the state softball tournament also included a motion to suspend implementation of the International Tiebreaker for the 2018 season.

The Board also addressed the future dates and sites for the boys’ and girls’ Sweet Sixteen®. Having previously established dates for the 2020-21 season to address facility conflicts with Rupp Arena hosting the 2021 NCAA Men’s Basketball First and Second Round, KHSAA staff worked in conjunction with arena personnel to finalize the 2019 through 2022 tournament dates. Under previous direction from the Board of Control, the Boys’ Sweet 16® was traditionally scheduled to avoid conflicts with the Southeastern Conference and Atlantic Coast Conference Tournaments. With the Girls’ Sweet 16® moving to Rupp Arena in 2019, the Board approved a recommendation to rotate the two tournaments over the next four years:

As part of the approved motion, the Girls’ Sweet 16® was awarded to Rupp Arena for an additional two years (through the 2022 tournament) following the Board’s revision of the 2020-21 playing season during a previous meeting.

The Board addressed several topics concerning football on Wednesday, including a review of a preliminary district alignment for 2019-20 through 2022-23. Following the January Board meeting, schools were given the option to declare their desire to “play up” in classification. The decisions to “play up” in the new alignment were:

Following a successful debut at Kroger Field for the 2017 state football finals, the Board approved a request from staff to complete the site award for the championships to be played at Kroger Field for 2020 and 2021.

Having created an additional championship opportunity for females at the January meeting with the creation of a girls’ Archery championship, the Board approved a recommendation from staff to finalize the format and structure for this year’s region and state championships. For 2018, the team events will consist of school squads of seven to 12 archers, with the team score calculated by adding the best seven scores from the group. Girls’ teams will be female only, while schools without enough girls to form a full team can enter their female competitors as part of the boys’ team, or enter them in the regionals as individuals. A female may be entered in the region as either an individual or part of a team, but not both, and that declaration is binding for both region and state.

Upon review of its Regional and State Competitive Cheer Championships, staff submitted a proposal to the Board to revise the postseason format in an effort to assist in the prevention of automatic qualifiers at Region/State and to ensure large enough competitions at the region level to help ensure viability. The new format would create eight regional competitions, with regions combined accordingly: 1&2; 3&4; 5&8; 6&7; 9&10; 11&12; 13&14; 15&16 (the combining of regions 5&8 and 6&7 matches representation on the Board of Control).

Regions could alternate host sites or choose to have a permanent site based upon facility abilities and availability. The changes will permit region competitions to be held in current weeks #2 and #3, and removes region competition on current week #1 which has historically been an ACT Test date.

In each division, the winner and runner-up from each of the eight regional competitions would advance to the State Competition (maintaining the current number of qualifiers at state). The Board also approved a recommendation to consolidate the Coed Divisions, primarily due to the lack of participation and the inability to have a full 16-team competition at state for multiple years. The two Coed divisions will be combined moving forward, with one male required and the overall squad limit increased to 30. With the combination of the two Coed divisions, the Game Day competition will be slotted into the second Coed spot, allowing the entire championship to be conducted in one day.

In addition, instead of an open enrollment at the state championship, as was the case in 2017, Game Day will be a division at each region and teams will qualify to compete at state. Schools will continue to be able to enter two squads in the Competitive Cheer Championships (two competitive, two Game Day or one competitive and one Game Day).

In other action Wednesday, the Board:

Approved revisions to the Tennis alignment effective with the 2019 season.

CLASS 5A (39 SCHOOLS)District 1- Graves County, Grayson County, Muhlenberg County, Ohio County, Owensboro
District 2- Bowling Green, Christian County, Greenwood, South Warren
District 3- Bullitt Central, Doss, Fairdale, Iroquois, Western
District 4- Atherton, Jeffersontown, North Bullitt, Seneca, South Oldham
District 5- Boone County, Conner, Cooper, Covington Catholic, Highlands
District 6- Frederick Douglass, Grant County, Great Crossing, Montgomery County, Scott County
District 7- Collins, East Jessamine, Madison Southern, West Jessamine, Woodford County
District 8- North Laurel, Pulaski County, South Laurel, Southwestern, Whitley County

CLASS 4A (39 SCHOOLS)District 1- Calloway County, Hopkins County Central, Hopkinsville, Logan County, Madisonville-North Hopkins
District 2- Allen County-Scottsville, Breckinridge County, Franklin-Simpson, Warren Central, Warren East
District 3- John Hardin, Marion County, Moore, Spencer County, Valley
District 4- Central, Franklin County, North Oldham, Shelby County, Waggener
District 5- Anderson County, Bourbon County, Boyle County, Lexington Catholic
District 6- Boyd County, Harrison County, Holmes, Rowan County, Scott
District 7- Corbin, Knox Central, Lincoln County, Russell County, Wayne County
District 8- Clay County, Harlan County, Johnson Central, Letcher County Central, Perry County Central

CLASS 3A (40 SCHOOLS)District 1- Paducah Tilghman, Trigg County, Union County, Webster County
District 2- Adair County, Casey County, Glasgow, Hart County, Taylor County
District 3- Bardstown, Elizabethtown, LaRue County, Nelson County, Thomas Nelson
District 4- Christian Academy-Louisville, DeSales, Garrard County, Henry County, Mercer County, Western Hills
District 5- Bell County, Estill County, Jackson County, McCreary Central, Powell County, Rockcastle County
District 6- Fleming County, Lewis County, Mason County, Pendleton County, West Carter
District 7- Ashland Blazer, East Carter, Greenup County, Russell
District 8- Belfry, Floyd Central, Lawrence County, Magoffin County, Pike County Central

CLASS 2A (39 SCHOOLS)District 1- Ballard Memorial, Caldwell County, Fort Campbell, Mayfield, Murray
District 2- Butler County, Hancock County, McLean County, Owensboro Catholic, Todd County Central
District 3- Clinton County, Edmonson County, Green County, Metcalfe County, Monroe County
District 4- Danville, Lexington Christian, Somerset, Washington County
District 5- Carroll County, Gallatin County, Owen County, Shawnee, Trimble County, Walton-Verona
District 6- Beechwood, Holy Cross (Covington), Lloyd Memorial, Newport
District 7- Breathitt County, Knott County Central, Leslie County, Middlesboro
District 8- Bath County, East Ridge, Morgan County, Prestonsburg, Shelby Valley, Sheldon Clark

I know this isn’t football topic but I wonder how many times softball state champ has come out of losers bracket? I always thought it was sort of cool that you could lose 1 and still have a chance to win